Anniversaries for Obamacare, and Patrick Henry

Today marks the second anniversary of the signing of President Obama’s health care takeover, a law which now hangs in the balance before the Supreme Court. But there is another anniversary too, and one far more meaningful in the course of human events.

It was 237 years ago today, in Virginia, that Patrick Henry gave a speech that rang out through the colonies and urged the people to stand up for their liberty. The speech is doubtless familiar to all of you. But there is a line that comes before the more famous conclusion which I have always loved.

In making his case that the colonists should be willing to stand even against the armed might of the British Empire, which had put down so many colonial rebellions in the past, Henry urged the Virginians on, saying:

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

To which I would add: Whether this younger anniversary matters a few years from now depends in large part on us remembering the counsel of the older one.

Benjamin Domench is is a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute and publisher of The Federalist.
Domenech joined Heartland in 2009 after several years working and writing on national health care policy, beginning with a political appointment as speechwriter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, and continuing as chief speechwriter for U.S. Senator John Cornyn during the Medicare Part D debate on Capitol Hill.
In addition to his work with Heartland and The Federalist, Domenech is the publisher of a daily subscription newsletter, The Transom, which is read daily by thousands of political insiders.
Domenech co-founded Redstate and hosts a popular podcast on market issues in the global economy -- and for which he won a "Sammy" award in 2011 — called Coffee & Markets.
In 2009 he was selected as a Journalism Fellow by the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution.